1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular to a method and apparatus for processing digital video data. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program product for using dynamically gathered digital video data to generate an optimal marketing strategy to improve sales based on patterns of events in the retail facility.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, merchants, owners, and operators of retail stores frequently had a personal relationship with their customers. The merchant often knew their customers' names, addresses, marital status, ages of their children, place of employment, anniversaries, birthdays, likes, dislikes, personal preferences, hobbies, ongoing projects, favorite recipes, honesty, and character of their customers. The merchant was able to use this information to cater to customer needs, push sales of items the customer might be likely to need or want based on the customer's personal situation, and develop an overall marketing strategy to maximize sales to the customer.
However, with the continued growth of large cities, the corresponding disappearance of small, rural towns, and the increasing number of large, impersonal chain stores, the merchants and employees of retail businesses rarely recognize regular customers and almost never know the customer's name or any details regarding their customer's personal preferences that might assist the merchant in marketing efforts.
One solution to this problem is directed toward using data mining techniques to gather customer profile data. The customer profile data is used to generate marketing strategies for marketing products to customers. Customer profile data typically includes static information provided by the customer in response to a questionnaire or survey, such as the name, address, telephone number, and gender of customers, as well as types of products preferred by the customer. Demographic data regarding a customer's age, sex, income, career, interests, hobbies, and consumer preferences may also be included in customer profile data.
In an ideal situation, general marketing strategies may be made based on customer profiles and purchase trends. For example, if children tend to be the primary consumers of brightly colored, sugar coated cereals, these items may be placed on lower shelves so that they will be at a child's eye level. In another example, a manufacturer may pay the retail store operator to place the item in a display at the end of an aisle or on a shelf at approximately eye level for an average shopper to increase the visibility and sales of the item.
However, these methods only provide limited and generalized marketing strategies that are directed towards a fairly large segment of the population without taking into account actual customer reactions to product placement in a particular retail store or to other environmental factors that may influence product purchases by actual customers.
In an attempt to better monitor customers in large retail stores, these stores frequently utilize cameras and other audio and/or video monitoring devices to record customers inside the retail store or in the parking lot. A store detective may watch one or more monitors displaying closed circuit images of customers in various areas inside the store to identify shoplifters. However, these solutions require a human user to review the audio and video recordings. In addition, the video and audio recordings are typically used only for store security.
Thus, current solutions do not utilize all of the potential dynamic customer data elements that may be available for generating marketing strategies to optimize purchases by customers. The data elements currently being utilized to generate marketing strategies only provide approximately seventy-five percent (75%) of the needed customer data.